Bari began with one man's mission to achieve a unique sound. Wolfe
Taninbaum, the designer of the original Bari reeds and mouthpieces was a
musician who played under the stage name of Wolfe Tayne for such famous
orchestras as Les Brown, Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey. He also sat in
with the CBS and NBC orchestras. Early on, Wolfe became so frustrated
with the inconsistency of playable reeds that he began to make his own.
After years of trying to perfect cane reeds, he turned to synthetics. In
1952 he developed his first synthetic reed. It was also the first one to
gain acceptance from some of the world's top musicians. Wolfe's
innovations didn't stop there. he also helped create a unique facing for
alto and tenor mouthpieces that Otto Link applied to his larger chamber
blanks, calling it the "WT." It produced a dark, husky resonance that
was coveted by saxophonists and fetched top dollar. Today's WT II and WT
III mouthpieces are improved designs of the original. Now you can
achieve that same coveted sound